Mass Effect: Anomaly
by HrtBrk1
Summary: The first part of my Dark Energy Series


April 29, 2185

Omega, Outside Afterlife

"Agitated: the final time human, you are not welcome here." The Elcor bounced stated in a bland tone typical to the massive gray species. Quint DeGaine frowned at the Elcor, tilting his worn-out cowboy hat up enough to catch a glimpse of the Elcor, and the two Krogan right behind him, appearing eager for the chance to tear him to shreds. "Dat so?" Quint spat at the Elcor and took a few steps forward, stopping just in front of the bouncer's face. "Well listen 'ere ya big 'ol lug, Miss Aria T'Loak 'erself has been wantin' to meet with me PERSONALLY, and seeing as y'all been keeping me from enterin' into this here joint to let me conduct my business wit Miss Aria... you'd be breaking Omega's one, simple rule, and I don't think y'all wanna know what kinda shit that'll getcha in." DeGaine tilted his hat just enough so the shadows would cover his eyes as he folded his arms, waiting for the alien's response.

"Uncaring: We have not received any news regarding your 'business' with Aria. Menacingly: Take care of him boys." The two krogan slowly closed in on DeGaine who showed no signs of concern as he remained motionless with his arms still folded. Just as one of the krogan was about to pullout his shotgun, DeGaine whipped out his pistol and took out the krogan's legs, swiping the shotgun from his hands and then fired three shots at his face, painting the walls cherry pie red. The second krogan blindly charged at him and Quint grabbed the barrel of the shotgun before sidestepping out of the krogan's path and then whacking the krogan's knee with the shotgun, causing him to lose his footing and then tumbled over a railing, plummeting into the bowels of Omega's slums. Quint tossed the shotgun away "See what happens when ya screw around wit' me?" Quint grunted at the Elcor, who, despite not showing any physical indications, was clearly in shock of the display Quint put on. DeGaine strolled by the bouncer and entered into Afterlife to conduct his business with Aria.

Though he had done countless jobs and missions for Ms. T'Loak over the years, Quint could only count the number of times he had been within viewing distance of Afterlife on his hand, let alone being INSIDE of it. During his childhood in the slums of Omega, Afterlife was but a myth to Quint and pretty much everyone else on Omega, a dream only glimpsed in vids and datapads salvaged from either junkpiles, or someone's corpse. DeGaine had been to countless nightclubs and brothels in addition to several other cesspools of hedonism and debauchery, though none could compare to the decadent pleasures that Afterlife could offer. The club was aptly named as it roughly portrayed the themes of each organic race's concept of, well, afterlife. Be it Humanity's Heaven, the Turian Spirit Plains, the Volus Olna Tzo and so forth, Afterlife was one of the few places in this galaxy where a person could expierence other-worldly pleasure. DeGaine walked down the entryway, passing a krogan bouncer hauling a passed out patron on his shoulder. DeGaine entered the club, and the first thing he noticed was the clientele; As this was basically the Pirate Queen's palace, it was naturally filled to the brim with pompous fops looking to cozy up to Aria T'Loak in an attempt to gain some sort of political clout on Omega, oblivious to the fact that the only person on Omega who had true influence was Aria herself.

An Asari walked up to Quint, her skin was a dainty teal color and she sported a very warm, welcoming facial expression. "Welcome Mr. DeGaine" she said to him as she bowed out of respect to him, she wore a small, black dress and the Asari equivalent of moccasins. DeGaine tipped his hat to the greeter "Suppose I should git to seein' Miss T'Loak 'bout now should I?" She nooded and motioned DeGaine to follow her, to which he agreed, DeGaine looked around at the sights of Afterlife, while he had been in Afterlife a couple times; he had never really spent enough time in the club to truly know if club lived up to its reputation. Was it the most popular place on Omega because of its amenities, or was it just because people wanted a glimpse of Aria, desperate for a longshot of power on Omega? Billions come to Omega seeking opportunity; expecting to make a fortune, and enjoy the luxuries of things like Afterlife, but when they arrive; they only find slums and a dead end future.

DeGaine scoffed at the thought as the Asari escorted him to Aria's private balcony. "Madame Aria, Mr. DeGaine is here" The Asari stepped to the side, DeGaine walked up to the stairs to Aria. He was immediately approached by a Turian and three Batarians, Aria's "body guards" if they could even be called that. "That's close enough... human." One of the batarians walked up to DeGaine, determined to deny the human his business with Aria. DeGaine huffed at the batarian, and gazed at him with an unconcerned look. "Moklan, if you don't step aside right now, I'll blast yer ass so far up ya head, it'll turn the ceiling whatever goddamn color ya blood is!" Moklan stepped back slightly, trying not to show any signs of anxiety. "I'd just about pay to see that!" A feminine voice could be heard laughing behead the gaggle of alien thugs. An Asari with a violet pigment walked down to DeGaine, it was none other than Aria T'Loak herself, Omega's one and only ruler.

"Ah, Miss T'Loak!" DeGaine removed his hat in a gesture of respect to her before shoving the batarian aside. "It'd be nice if ya bouncers were a tid bit more... cordial next time m'dear." "Do you want the job or not?" T'Loak faced DeGaine with a straight face; she was an expert at reading body language, though humans were still relatively... new to the galactic community, as was their sarcastic tone. DeGaine chuckled and put his hat back on "depends on the job, and how much you're willing to pay for it to be dealt with." Aria tossed an OSD towards DeGaine, which he caught with two fingers, it was a compact chip painted jet black with no print on it whatsoever. "Everything you need to know is on that OSD." DeGaine nodded, knowing that this was a high-risk, high-secrecy and most of all, high-reward job. DeGaine was used to getting his jobs through OSDs but the fact that Aria herself was giving it to him meant that it was something she wanted to keep under wraps.

As DeGaine exited Afterlife, his omni-tool began to beep, indicating he had a call incoming. He toggled the omni-tool activation button and brought the call onto screen. DeGaine could see it was Grizz, a turian member of Aria's "personal guard" and a frequent middle-man of deals between Aria and DeGaine. "Grizz here, Aria wants to you know two things regarding the job." DeGaine huffed and nodded in acknowledgement, "One, all details about the job are to be kept between you and Aria. Two, if you fail and didn't die in the process, you got until one of Aria's men takes you down to get off Omega." "Got it skull-face" DeGaine ended the call and then got into his skycar, heading back to his safe house.

As the skycar got off the ground, DeGaine set it to auto-pilot with a route to his safe house pre-programed in the navigation computer. It then adjusted itself to get on the proper course heading. The skycar rushed through the jungle of steels structures that seemed to sprout from the dark, bottomless bowels of Omega. There was always a thicket of red haze that sifted through Omega's atmosphere, a common joke among Omega's inhabitants is that so much blood has been shed for control of Omega that even the air has been turned red, but nevertheless it obviously didn't have any adverse health effects, well, not for humans anyway. Quint thumbed a few icons on the dashboard and the windows of the skycar immediately tinted into an opaque black as he pulled out the OSD he received from Aria.

He analyzed it for a bit, the smooth, jet black chip wasn't even half the size of DeGaine's thumb and while he was used to receiving job details and contracts via OSDs, there was something very eerie about this one. What was with all the secrecy? Was there something so volatile that even Aria T'Loak was reluctant to be implicated in? While she was indeed at the seat of power of Omega, Aria was a businesswoman, not a warlord; she had built her criminal empire with her charisma and her network of connections, not with armies or brute force. So it was a possibility that she wanted to maintain an "image" of sorts, so much as not to show any weak points to would-be rivals seeking to dethrone her. It was in this way Quint had become one of Aria's most valued hitmen, to a point that he was roughly Omega's equivalent to the Citadel Council's Spectres: He did whatever it took to get a job done, he got consistent results and he only answered to one person.


End file.
